GLADIOLUS (Gladiolus grandiflorus L.) SCENARIO AND ITS IMPROVEMENT THROUGH INTERVARIETAL HYBRIDIZATION IN BANGLADESH

Abstract

The present experiment was carried out during the period from November'2008 to October' 2009 to investigate the morphology, market demand. and production of hybrid seed and % of hybrid seed germination in gladiolus. The experiment included five gladiolus genotypes. The results indicated the existence of wide variability among the genotypes on their morphological characters along with yield and yield attributes. Genotypes varied from 59.63 cm to 92.05 cm and 25.66 cm to 47.30cm in spike length and raehis length, respectively. Number of flower was the highest in white (14.25) and the lowest in orange (8.40) genotype. Number of connel and eorrnel weight of the genotypes significantly difThred and ranged from 25.70 to 43.20 and 5.20g to 6.40 g. respectively. The price of gladiolus flower varied from genotype to genotype and the demand and price of gladiolus flower also varied in different month of the year, different clays of the week and different special days of the year. Considering crossing parameters, variation were observed for length of capsule (cm). breadth of capsule and thousand seed weight (g). Mean data indicated that all the crosses produced gladiolus true seed i.e. F1 seed. The number of seeds per capsule ranged from 15.08 to 38.40. The highest number of seed per capsule was produced by the cross Yellow x Red (38.40) while the lowest number of seed per capsule was produced by the cross Violet x Red (15.08).